Eat24 “Breaks Up” With Facebook Over News Feed Policy

Food-delivery service Eat24 struck a social-media nerve last week with a lengthy, satirical open letter to Facebook.

Eat24’s complaint, which was serious, is that it has worked to build followers on the social network, only to find that the vast majority of its posts go unseen by its fans.

“We give you text posts, delicious food photos, coupons, restaurant recommendations… and what do you do in return? You take them and you hide them from all our friends,” Eat24 wrote on in a blog post, which had garnered 21,000 “likes” on Facebook by Tuesday.

Eat24’s complaints highlighted tensions among brands, users and Facebook itself over which messages, of the billions posted daily, users should see on what Facebook calls the news feed. Brands want to get a message out. Users want to catch up with friends and family. And Facebook wants to keep users on the service as long as possible to make money.

Facebook uses a computer algorithm to choose items for each user, and is continually tweaking the formula to favor what it thinks people want to see. Late last year, Facebook began to favor “high quality” articles because it says users respond well to interesting posts linking to popular news sites.

Such changes frustrate brands that say Facebook encouraged them to create presences on the social network, but now wants them to pay for the privilege. To prevent marketers from “gaming” the algorithm, Facebook has made it more complicated. But Facebook also hopes that companies like Eat24 will be forced to advertise to get their message out to more users.

“A lot of brands are scratching their heads because they’re seeing that things that worked before aren’t working anymore,” said John Cashman, CEO of Digital Firefly Marketing, of the most recent changes.

Last week, actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on “The Office,” joined the chorus of critics. “Turns out my @Facebook is kind of worthless. I used to post & reach most of my 200K followers, now I reach 5K & have to pay to hit more,” Wilson tweeted.

What users see on Facebook is akin to a TV show tailored specifically to them, based on their past viewing habits. If users click on cat photos, they’re likely to see more cat photos on future Facebook visits. If they “like” posts by their grandparents, they’re likely to see more of those.

Facebook launched the news feed in 2006. At that time, users had fewer friends and there wasn’t as much content being created. As more users logged on and posted more content, Facebook in 2009 overhauled the news feed, taking posts out of chronological order and re-ordering them based on its assessment of their importance.

In fall 2012, Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, complained bitterly about the phenomenon. “Facebook is blowing it?” he asked on Twitter, posting a screen shot in which Facebook solicited thousands of dollars to ensure fans actually saw his post. Mr. Cuban said he would move his team’s social media strategy to Yahoo’s Tumblr or Myspace in response.

Since then, Facebook’s revenue and profits have continued to grow. The social network says there never was a time when a brand could reach all of its fans. But as more content is produced, the percentage that can fit in users’ news feeds continues to shrink. Some brands have complained about this for years, but others are surprised to learn just how few people actually see their posts.

“For the longest time, success meant reaching 16% of fans,” said Peter Fontana, research and insights director at We Are Social, a U.K.-based marketing company. Now, he says, posts more typically reach 4% to 6% of a brand’s Facebook fans. “The fear is that’s going to continue to go down even further,” he said.

Facebook didn’t waste much time responding to Eat24. “I was bummed to read your letter,” Brandon McCormick, a Facebook spokesman, wrote on Eat24’s Facebook page. “We think we could still be friends – we really do. But we totally respect you if you need some space.”